The 2024 “SMILE Summer Music Series” of free Saturday evening concerts through August got underway on July 13, with Westmoreland’s Windermere Building providing shade for the concert-goers who came to hear the JT Wise Band.
What they got instead was at a slightly lower energy level than they were expecting; SMILE Board Member Jim Friscia, who headed the committee arranging these free summer concerts, explained that that band had to cancel at the last minute due to illness, and stepping in instead was the duo of Mary Flower and Adam Scramstad – “world-class fingerpicking guitarists and songwriters”.
Describing themselves as “purveyors of good time music”, the pair played their personalization of Americana Roots music – Bluegrass, blues, and traditional songs – with brief breaks to share stories with the sizeable audience turning out for the show.
This was the first concert at which the neighborhood association had arranged to have concessions available for attendees, with non-alcoholic drinks and beer available, and that proved to be a success. SMILE is considering perhaps adding snacks and food items to the available concessions at future concerts.
These weekly concerts will continue on Saturday nights at 6:30 p.m., all of them (with one exception) in the parking lot of the Windermere Building between Bybee Boulevard and Rural Street on 16th Avenue in Westmoreland through at least August 24th.
The one exception is on Saturday, August 17, at 6:30 p.m., when the location will instead be in Sellwood Park – as SMILE and Portland Parks & Recreation present Kris Deelane and the Hurt, in a Summer-Free-For-All “Concerts in the Park” program.
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